These were our favorite HelloGiggles stories in 2017

HelloGiggles is ringing in the new year by celebrating all the smart, poignant, and brave essays that were published this year. Our voices and POVs are more important than ever, and even though 2017 was mostly a garbage fire, I still wanted HG to be the safe, inclusive space that it’s always been known to be, and a place that embraces and celebrates different perspectives and styles and journeys. Here’s to another great year filled with boundless storytelling by women.

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1Anna Gragert, Associate Editor

“My treasured 2017 project is the series we published for Women’s History Month. It created a space for the women history forgot, for those women who, to this day, deserve a spot in our history textbooks. They are reminders that women are a fucking force:

I love this piece so much because this is a concept that I’ve *always* subconsciously wondered about myself, but never really had the words to verbalize it. Gina nailed the idea of fetishizing morning routines so superbly:

So many fabulous videos to choose from, but something about the period cup video just really spoke to me. It was such a refreshing take on relatable women’s issues, and it just made me LOL the whole way through. But instead of just being about the gag of a period cup stuck in a vagina, the video really took us somewhere and had great thesis statement:

I’ll admit, I was skeptical when I first learned we were going to go through with this kitten cam thing. As we know, I’m not the biggest cat girl. And yet, here I am admitting this is one of the best things we did all year!

3Nicole Adlman, Senior Editor

“This essay by The Blend’s writer Rebecca Paredes unpacks the complex relationship between culture, language, family, and food. Her story shows how speaking through something tactile, like a savory pork and cheese pupusa, can be just as beautiful as communicating with words:

Not going to lie, I was festive as fuck this Hanukkah, but I appreciate Rosie Glen-Lambert’s laser-sharp explanation of the holiday and why it shouldn’t be weighed against the normative Christian traditions of Christmas:

Any time Tiffany Curtis puts a critical lens to something unjust in the world, I immediately read it. In her essay about Pepsi’s infamously misguided, Kendall Jenner-led ad, she speaks poignantly about the continued trauma, persecution, and cultural co-opting black Americans face in their own country:

Because Wonder Woman was a very special movie to me in 2017, and my favorite part was all the stuff with the amazing Amazons at the beginning. And as someone who works in the film and TV business as a woman behind the camera, I know how lacking most of Hollywood is in female representation in those important jobs. So it was great to help celebrate Patty Jenkins’ choices as an awesome female voice that I can’t wait to see more of:

7Samantha Chavarria, Contributor

“This one, I’m proud to say, is mine. I had written another article for HG (Standing up for your health can literally mean the difference between life and death) talking about my dad’s terminal diagnosis with cancer and his fight getting treatment but this one was more personal. It was a love letter to my father and addressed the grief I was dealing with but writing it was also an amazing process that gave me hope. Three days after it was published, dad got the miraculous news that his first round of chemo had knocked out 95% of his cancer. He isn’t out of the woods yet, but we can see through the trees. I will always be thankful for editor Rachel Sanoff for allowing me to write this:

I’m an avid gun reformist and the whole ‘guns don’t kill people’ thing as always struck me as a bunch of crap because I know that domestic violence is not caused by guns but the majority of domestic violence deaths involve victims with gunshot wounds. It’s time we take this issue more seriously and realize guns do more to terrorize and harm women than protect them. I was so glad to see this article for that reason:

Ok, I’m hot and cold on Taylor but this has always been an issue that I’ve seen the hypocrisy in. It goes back to the old argument over whether popular figures are roll models or not. I say yes and the silence on her end about this speaks volumes. I was glad to see HG hold a fav accountable because that’s what we have to do to keep our integrity:

9Gwendolyn Purdom Ottolin, Contributor

“Wanted to pass along my props to Karen Fratti’s piece that actually just went up yesterday, ‘Here’s how to shut down ignorant men who think women are ‘overreacting’ about sexual harassment,’ as a favorite. At a time when it’s sometimes hard not to feel helpless with everything that’s going on in the world, I think content like this that offers concrete ways to readers to make small positive change in their own personal circles is so, so valuable. Also, couldn’t not click on it with the holidays coming up. Bring on the inevitable uncomfortable conversations with obscure relatives — after reading this I’m ready for them!”

10Amanda Malamut, Contributor

“I would like to self promote my queer self care article. This piece has been a reminder throughout the year that taking care of myself is necessity. I can’t help other people if I can’t take care of myself:

11Jill Layton, Contributor

“I love when my worlds collide, which is what happened when writer Stephanie Hallett interviewed Anjelah Johnson. Anj is my BFF and Hello Giggles is my favorite internet place, so it was all so perfect and wonderful:

My own personal piece about becoming a mom in 2017 after a struggle with infertility; writing/publishing it gave me some closure and I got tons of tweets and messages from strangers who related to it, which felt really amazing during a weird postpartum fog:

Aaand honestly, all the ‘letters from the editor’ this year, and the accompanying artwork, of course. I felt at once singled out and addressed as part of a powerful group of women when you’d write to us, and I think your thoughts on democracy and positivity and feminism were all really great and helped provide support during some trying times. So thank you!”

13Arielle Tschinkel, Contributor

“Two of my favorite writers on the site (Karen Fratti and Kenya Foy) have done such amazing work that it was hard to choose, but here are my two favorites (I *think!*):

Let’s be real: writing about racism is *never* easy, but Karen manages to do so in a way that is both effective and sensitive, gracefully handling a topic that could very easily incite rage in our readers. Her words are thoughtful and poignant, while still being tough and to-the-point.

Kenya is one of the very best lifestyle writers out there, and her work is always empowering and comforting, filled with the perfect little touches like GIFs and phrases to complement her voice perfectly.

This is admittedly my own self-promo, but I include this more as gratitude towards YOU guys for giving me a safe space to write about mental health. I can’t tell you how many messages I got from readers thanking me for this piece because they felt so alone in the same struggle, and I was so afraid to put these thoughts into the world because of how alone I felt! I would love to be able to write more openly about these topics in 2018 and I know that HG is my safe zone to do so.”

14Candace Granger, Contributor

“There were a ton of amazing HG articles this year, and I hate to self-promote, but my favorite piece written, probably ever, is:

I’m choosing this because over the last 9 years, I haven’t found a way to grieve my father. This show, and writing this article, shifted something in me; it closed a vein that otherwise hadn’t. And because it came from the place I least expected it, this show, these characters, will forever be my marker for healing.

15Rachel Paige, Entertainment Editor

“I wrote a lot of Game of Thrones stories this year. Honestly, maybe TOO MANY Game of Thrones stories. But this one is one of my favorites because I was just so full of emotions by the end of the season, I couldn’t think straight — and then I remembered that Gendry just up and went MIA again and come on buddy. Can you not right now?

On April 26th, 2017 my dreams came true: I wrote not one but three different stories about Jeff Goldblum. Here was the best one, where he’s selling sausage out of a food truck in Australia, fulfilling all sorts of weird dreams/wishes:

17Alyssa Morin, Associate Beauty Editor

I really loved doing this tutorial because a) it got me out of my comfort zone and b) it was different from all of the other beauty recreations I do. Most of them are super glam and with this one, I was able to really hone in on my ‘craft’:

It’s probably annoying at this point, but being able to copy JLO’s iconic makeup look from ‘Jenny From the Block’ was really special for me. It wasn’t just copying her makeup for me, I really wanted to get everything right, from using products that have been inspired by her glow to learning how to contour my lips in the same way her makeup artist did for that video:

I loved that Marie got to interview Beyoncé’s makeup artist! I enjoyed reading this interview, learning about makeup tips and his idea on beauty trends (like how thin brows from the ‘90s were really a trend from the 1920s):

Reading this personal essay about how DACA was really eye opening. It was such a great article on how Trump’s rhetoric, new laws, and overall discriminatory message is really affecting real humans. It’s one thing to read a regular news story about it but to read something so personal and how it affects someone’s life really made me sad and I love that that writer felt safe and comfortable sharing that on HG:

While this has been recreated countless of times, I did a lot of research to accurately apply makeup in the way she did. For example, she used Vaseline as a PRIMER, she was one of the first to contour her lips (well, her makeup artist was) and she also used white eyeliner to enhance her eyes. It was super fascinating to me that a simple red lip and cat-eye was so much more when you actually think about her entire beauty routine:

This was so fun and interesting to read. It was interesting how different cultures view makeup and marriage and how one lipstick can be powerful enough lol to land you a husband. I loved Emily’s angle and her take on the whole thing:

18Karen Belz, Contributor

“I just wanted to note that I loved following Jill’s IVF adventure. I know the first story was from 2016, but hearing about Eloise was born, and the things they don’t tell you about new moms, totally resonated with me (for obvious reasons.) I just love her personality and have re-read that piece multiple times.

As for my own, I was pretty proud of the Vanessa Hudgens interview I did, since I actually thought I was going into labor that day before it happened! I had to cancel it, then try to make sure it was back on when I realized it was a false start. (I kind of thought that “I cancelled on Vanessa Hudgens to give birth to you” would have been a pretty stellar story for my daughter, yet alas, she arrived days later.) Vanessa also opened up to me about powering through her Grease: Live! performance immediately after losing her dad, which I’m still quite touched by.”

19Rachel Sanoff, Features Editor

“Gripping imagery, captivating transitions documenting the writer’s coming-of-age, and lighthearted allusions to poet Sandra Cisneros powerfully tell a story that is painfully familiar to so many — surviving eating disorders and surviving sexual abuse — with a feeling of hope:

This essay’s use of both anecdotes and news creates a profoundly brutal callout of all those who claim to be “shocked” by the racism we’ve witnessed this year, as well as an impactful call-to-action for all those who actually want to be allies:

I’m grateful for this news feature that takes so much complex research about a devastating subject, and breaks it down into accessible facts — and in the era of Trump, facts are more important than ever:

20Pamela Avila, Social Media Producer

“Trump rescinded DACA in 2017, and it was so disheartening and painful to see the effects it had on DACA recipients and all of those affected. Reading personal essays like this helped me not only learn more about what it actually means to be a DACA recipient but also realize that there’s so much work that has to be done and we need to support Dreamers all the way through:

This was simply so well-written and it made you CHECK YOURSELF before you did something other than not believe these women coming forward. This piece just lay everything out plain and clear: you can’t pick and choose ‘when it comes to empowering victims of abuse and choose when advocacy is convenient for you’:

My interview with comedian and actress Cristela Alonzo was my first interview for HelloGiggles but also just what I needed at that moment. Everything Alonzo talked about in regards to the ways she was raised and how that’s affected her adult life was extremely relatable, and empowering. Her story is beautiful and I’m just glad I was able to tell a part of it:

21Margeaux Klein, SEO Writer

22Gina Vaynshteyn, Editorial Director

“It’s impossible to pick which HelloGiggles stories were my favorite this year, because there were SO. MANY. good ones. I feel astonishingly proud every single day to be publishing work that is unapologetic, smart, funny, and thoughtful. A few that really stood out to me were (but, seriously, I could go on and on and on about all the powerful HG stories we published this year):

Emily’s brother lives in Japan, and when she told me about how her brother’s girlfriend got her “marriage lipstick” for Christmas, I knew she had to write about it. I love how much research went into this post, and how telling this mytholigized beauty product is about Japan’s expectations for women (and ours as well, tbh).

Nicole has a special way with words that makes me so happy she works at HG and also very jealous, because her talent for writing is tremendous, and very Joan Didion-esque. I loved this essay about how she learned to love this clunky, controversial sandal because it transcended fashion and became much more about identity.

Sometime in October, our video producer Christina found that a New York Post article slammed her Halloween costume video (in which Christina includes “surprise period” as an actually scary costume, along with generalized anxiety, something that she has), saying a “surprise period” is actually the worst costume. Christina wrote a response to the article, and it was incredibly thoughtful and honest. In it, she explains why she created her video and why she wouldn’t be apologizing for it, and I think that’s just so brave and cool.”